


Just you and me

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Drinking to Cope, Exhaustion, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Gen, Heavy Drinking, Hurt Jay Halstead, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, References to Drugs, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 00:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: It was three in the morning, and for the first time in a long time, Mouse was fast asleep without having to take something or call Jay during the night while he was in the middle of a panic attack.But tonight the roles were reversed, and it was Mouse who was woken up at three in the morning to his phone buzzing on his nightstand, showing Jay’s face on the screen and six previous missed calls that Mouse hadn’t heard.





	Just you and me

It was three in the morning, and for the first time in a long time, Mouse was fast asleep.

They’d been home for a couple of months at this point, and for the very first time since then, he’d been so tired that he’d fallen asleep without taking anything or needing to call Jay throughout the night. Jay was always nice about it, though. He didn’t mind that Mouse would wake him at two or three or four crying and shaking about the war, and never once did he make Mouse feel weak for needing to hear his voice, to be reminded that they made it home.

But tonight the roles were reversed, and it was Mouse who was woken up at three in the morning to his phone buzzing on his nightstand, showing Jay’s face on the screen and six previous missed calls that Mouse hadn’t heard. He rubbed at his eyes before slowly turning over and answering it. “Jay?” He hated how thick and groggy his voice sounded, but it was three in the morning and he’d just woken up, Jay could cut him some slack. “You all good, man?”

“Oh geez, fuck, sorry man, did I wake you?” Jay’s voice was hoarse as if he’d been screaming for the past few hours, and Mouse could hear it shake even through the bad reception,

“Nah, it's fine,” Mouse swung his legs off the side of the bed as he sat up. “What’s wrong? You sound like shit.”

“Uh... I uh...” Jay sounded a little bit like he was choking. “I think I can hear gunshots, man. Or bombs or something, I don’t know, but they’re everywhere and it’s... it’s driving me crazy.”

Mouse couldn’t help but frown. This was the first phone call he’d ever gotten from Jay at this time of night, and the first time Jay had sounded like his world was falling apart, but he knew where Jay lived and it was very unlikely that he would be hearing gunshots or bombs and not be sure. “Have you been drinking tonight?”

He could almost hear Jay’s teeth grit together. “What does it matter?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mouse said. He tried to be gentle and make his voice soft because the last thing he needed was for Jay to be angry at him during a moment of panic. “It doesn’t, I’m just asking, because sometimes when I pop too many pills before bed I think I hear things that aren’t really there and then I don’t end up sleeping and I call you instead, you know? So I was just wondering if you and I had the same experiences.”

Jay was silent for a long, painful moment before he took a deep breath and said, “Ok,”

But then Mouse heard it- a weird, popping sound and a whizzing, the sound of something blowing up and scattering. The sound that Jay made on the other end of the phone made Mouse jump and it sounded for a moment like Jay had fallen down a flight of stairs and dived into a pool. “See- _there_! Did you hear it? I swear to god, Mouse, I’m not going crazy.”

Frowning, Mouse sat back a bit and thought, because that didn’t really sound like any gunshot or bomb that he knew, and Mouse knew quite a lot of them. But then he looked at his alarm clock, it’s illumined letters a painful red in the darkness and read the date: 3:27, 4th July. “Oh, Jay, they’re fireworks,” Mouse said as the realization hit him.

“Fireworks?” Jay sounded so lost that Mouse wanted to give him a virtual hug. “Why the hell would anyone be blowing up fireworks and three in the morning?”

“Because it’s the 4th of July and some whack bag kids probably got drunk and decided to celebrate early,” Mouse said, standing up now and trying to navigate his bedroom in the dark, feeling along the floor with his feet to try and find the clothes he had discarded before collapsing into bed. “Jay, are you ok?”

“I just...” Jay fumbled. “I could have sworn they were bombs, man. I swear to god, I was looking everywhere for smoke and fire, but I couldn’t see anything.”

Grunting when he hit his knee on the corner of his bed, Mouse held the phone up against his ear with one hand while he struggled to pull on his pants with the other. “I know Jay. Just hang in there for a minute, OK? I’m on my way. Just... I don’t know, run a bath or something. Have a drink, calm your nerves,”

Mouse could hear Jay’s frantic panting from the other side of the line, and he didn’t like that not one bit. “What are you going to do?”

He buttoned his pants and found a shirt as he sprinted down the stairs. “I’m going to call a taxi, and then I’m going to be at your place in 10 minutes.”

There were a pair of shoes by the door, and Mouse pulled them on without pause and without socks and made sure he locked the door after he left and take the keys with him. “Mouse, you really... really don’t have to do that. I’m fine. Really.”

“Sure, Jay,” Mouse waved down a taxi- there always was a bunch patrolling the streets waiting for someone desperate enough to pay way too much money for a couple of minutes drive. “Whatever you say.”

“Mouse, seriously,”

“Jay, relax, it’s no big deal,” Mouse nearly got his foot run over by the taxi driver in his haste to get into the car. “Besides, you do the same thing for me all the time. Let me be a good friend for once, alright? Stay put- I’ll be there soon.”

The lights were all turned on at Jay’s apartment when Mouse finally arrived not too long later, and he flung a fistful of cash at the taxi driver before running up the driveway and banging loudly on the front door. “Jay, it’s me. Are you in there?”

When the door opened, he was met by the sight of a frazzled Jay, wide-eyed, shirtless, and wearing nothing but a pair of ratty grey pyjama pants full of moth holes that he seemed to have just pulled out of his cupboard without thinking. “Hi,” Jay said softly, eyes darting back and forth, as he took a step back so Mouse could enter.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Mouse walked through the doorway and waited until Jay had closed and locked the door behind him before he spoke. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s uh,” Jay licked his lips and ran a heavy hand down his face as if trying to wake himself up. He did look tired- Mouse felt a little guilty for keeping him awake. “It’s been a rough night man. A really rough night.”

“I can see that,” Mouse said gently. Then he heard it again- the popping, fizzing, crackling sound of fireworks exploding in the sky not far from their location, and he watched Jay flinch and step back, head swiving on his neck like the turret on the roof of a tank as he tried in a futile effort to find the source of the noise. “It sounds like a few blocks away.”

“It sounds a lot closer than that,” Jay said, teeth clenched hard as he forced himself to close his eyes.

Mouse took a step forward. “Hey, man, they’re fireworks. Not bombs. We’re all good.”

Jay’s eyes snapped open and they were filled with a fire that Mouse hadn’t seen in months. “Don’t you think I know that? Don’t treat me like a child, Greg, because I don’t want your pity.”

“Hey,” Mouse said, eyes narrowed. “After all we’ve been through, you really want to snap at me like that? Really? Are you serious right now? I’ve come all the way out here, on my own time, to make sure you were ok, and you repay me by getting angry with me?”

Like a balloon running out of air on a hot summer’s day, Jay deflated, and the fire burning in his eyes dulled to an icy, blank tundra, and he fell back until he could lean his whole weight against the wall behind him. “Sorry,” he said, voice barely above a whisper, and Mouse knew without a doubt that he meant every word. “I didn’t... it’s been a really bad day, Mouse.”

“I know,” Mouse replied, looking around the room. Jay wasn’t the neatest person Mouse had ever met, but at least his couch was clean, and the only real mess were the beer bottles and labelled cans discarded and empty on the coffee table, and the full, unopened ones sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting to be drank. “You got a blanket? I’m staying here tonight.”

Jay frowned. “What? Why? Mouse, really, you don’t...”

“I forgot my keys,” Mouse lied, shrugging weakly. “I left them somewhere before I got into the taxi, and I’d rather stay here than go find a hotel or something. Besides, I think we could both use the company, especially tonight.”

There was silence where Jay looked like he was about to refuse, but then it seemed like his senses won out over his pride and he reluctantly nodded. “OK. Yeah. Whatever you need Mouse, you just name it.”

“Well, what I want is to go back to bed, but what _you_ want is to have a nice cold beer and watch the Simpsons on the TV,” Mouse said, and Jay smiled because it was true. “So that’s what I want, too. I’m not doing anything tomorrow, and I doubt you are either, so how about we celebrate the 4th of July early, huh? Just you and me?”

For the first time in a very long time, Jay smiled, and Mouse felt himself smiling too. “Yeah buddy. Just you and me.”


End file.
